A review of Tower of Babel by Bodie Hodge

A review of  Tower of Babel by Bodie Hodge, published by New Leaf:

 

 



Though I've read much in the fields of apologetics and theology over the last few years, I haven't spent much time in various aspects relating to creationism and a young earth theology.  This was new territory for me so I didn't know what to expect.  I did go into this book with a vague understanding that much of the dating used by James Ussher and others was to be taken with a grain of salt, but honestly, I had never given much thought to the tower of Babel and it's significance to us today.

There are three things I really appreciated about this book:
1.  Working in engineering myself, I appreciated that Bodie, who has an engineering background, did not venture into rampant speculation and myth.  He was quick to point out any areas where facts were unclear or unverifiable, and built his analysis on data and proper interpretation of it, not idle speculation.

2.  Bodie was quick to point us to the final authority of Scripture and notd everything else is judged in light of Scripture as the final authority.  His high view of Scripture runs through this whole book and that was very encouraging and refreshing.  Scripture interprets Scripture, and we can go no further than Scripture allows.  I was really appreciative that Bodie affirms that in this book.

3.  Lastly, Bodie didn't just present a bunch of facts in order to prove that the tower of Babel existed.  As he states in chapter 29 Seeing Christ in Babel, "although this helps us get into the Word of God and learn from the wisdom of its pages, let's not forget the reason for it all - Christ".  He ends this book by showing how the dispersion of Babel is reversed by Christ and finishes off by tying all of this into the Gospel.  When I first started the book, I was wondering what the central point was. Bodie wraps everything up neatly at the end.  Christ is the point.

There is a lot of detail here and many footnotes for anyone desiring to study this subject further.  With helpful charts and brief chapters, this book takes a subject that could get very confusing and keeps it easy to understand.  This is a great tool for layman wanting to learn more in this area!

I received a free copy of this book from New Leaf Publishing in exchange for my unbiased review.